The Final Days of Mir

Background Information

The core module of Russia's Mir space station was launched on February 19, 1986. Subsequent launches and on-orbit assembly over the years resulted in the current Mir configuration, consisting of a total of six interlocking modules. Including the docked Progress M resupply vehicle, Mir currently has a total mass of approximately 140 tons. For most of its 15 years in orbit, Mir has been occupied. It has operated well beyond its projected 3.5 year lifetime, serving as a technology demonstrator, an orbital laboratory, and a base for studying the long-term effects of weightlessness on the human body. In addition to Russian cosmonauts, Mir has hosted international researchers, including American astronauts. In the areas of science, engineering, biology, and international relations, the station has been an unmitigated success. Now, however, the station is rapidly approaching the end of its lifetime. It is scheduled to be deorbited in mid March 2001. The decision to end Mir's operation was the result of two factors: age and expense. In recent years, the station has shown signs of its age in the form of system failures. A fire occurred on Mir on February 23, 1997, endangering the lives of its occupants. Later that same year, on June 25, a Progress M vehicle, manually piloted from the space station, collided with Mir's Spektr module, damaging its solar arrays and puncturing its hull. The resulting damage from the collision led to the isolation of the Spektr module from the rest of the station and a 30% decrease in the station's power generation capability. Later, a small air leak was detected just prior to the departure of the Mir 27 crew on August 27, 1999. Ultimately, the Mir 28 crew (see below) found the leak after exhaustive testing, isolating each Mir module and testing for pressure drops. The leak was found in a valve in the hatch between Mir's spherical PkhO transfer compartment, which connects the four science modules and the Soyuz TM spacecraft to Mir's core module, and the depressurized Spektr module. Recently, problems with Mir's electrical system have caused both a loss of contact and attitude control. On December 26, 2000, contact with Mir was lost for 21 hours because of an unexplained loss of main battery power. On January 18, 2001, a similar loss of power led to loss of attitude control when Mir's Salyut-5B main computer and gyrodynes shut down, delaying the launch of the final Progress M1-5 spacecraft. After four days, the computer was reactivated. However, TsUP mission controllers have thus far been unable to keep the gyrodynes running. The station is currently rotating at a rate of 0.18 degrees per second, using its thrusters to maintain attitude control. In addition to its batteries, Mir's thermal control system and computer are also showing signs of age. The thermal control system has begun losing its leak-tightness. In late January 2001, the temperature inside Mir reached a peak of 36 degrees Celsius. Additional problems have appeared in the form of erroneous commands issued by the main computer. For a list of Mir's system problems for 1997 from Florida Today, click here. Mir's age and the accompanying system failures are not the overriding reason for the Russian Aerospace Agency's (RASA's) decision to end the station's life, however. The main reason is expense. It requires $200-250 million a year to operate the station if it is continuously occupied and approximately $100 million if it is not. One or two (if there is high solar activity) $7 million Progress spacecraft dock with the station each year to provide it with reboost capability to offset the effects of orbit decay. The Progress spacecraft also carry food, water, and equipment for visiting Mir crews. Due to the faltering Russian economy, the Russian Aerospace Agency (RASA), called Rosia did not have the funds necessary for simultaneously operating and maintaining Mir and developing and launching critical components for the International Space Station (ISS). In the late 1990s, RASA was under considerable pressure by NASA to focus its strained resources on one station, the ISS. NASA wanted RASA to scuttle Mir and to launch the ISS's Zvezda Service Module, which had been delayed for over two years by development problems and a ban on launches of the required Proton launch vehicle from the Baiknor Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan after two successive Proton failures. Zvezda was critical to the fledgling ISS. It would provide the station with reboost capability, power, and life support for its first crew. Ultimately, RASA decided to focus its attention on its ISS commitments, convinced that participation in the international program was the best way to ensure Russia's continuing stature as one of the world's great space powers. Funds for Mir for 2000 were thus limited to what was required for deorbiting the station. However, the agency did not completely close the door on Mir. Mir's operation could continue, RASA indicated, if private funds could be found. Thus, in late 1999, with Mir's orbit significantly lowered by atmospheric drag and little propellant remaining in the docked Progress M for station reboost, RKK Energia, the Russian aerospace company that developed and operates Mir, started searching for investors. Little time was left for Mir. Without reboost or a controlled deorbit, it was due to reenter the earth's atmosphere, uncontrolled, in late March 1999. With the end of Mir's life via controlled deorbit scheduled for late April 2000, and after failing to secure the investors who could save the station, Energia had all but given up hope in late 1999. It was at this time that the company was approached by American telecommunications entrepreneur Walter Anderson, head of the Gold and Appel holding company, based in the Virgin Islands. Initially, Anderson wanted to buy Mir. After some discussion with Jeffrey Manber, Energia's US representative, who explained that Mir couldn't be bought because it was the property of the Russian government, Anderson agreed to form a corporation with Energia, called MirCorp. Through a leasing agreement with the Russian government, MirCorp would market Mir for commercial uses, including pharmaceutical and manufacturing micro-gravity research, advertising, space tourism, and satellite repair, assembly, and launch. After securing another investor, Chicago-based telecommunications executive Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria, MirCorp began business on February 17, 2000 with the signing of the lease agreement between MirCorp and Energia. Anderson's initial investment in Mircorp was $20 million. With this funding, along with additional funds from Kathuria, and both a Progress M1 and a Soyuz TM spacecraft contributed by Energia, which it utilized in lieu of payment on a RASA debt, the 28th mission to Mir was executed. Progress M1-1, a new spacecraft that carries twice as much fuel as the previous Progress M, was launched on February 1, 2000 and docked with Mir on February 3. It boosted Mir's orbit by over 22 nmi, saving the station from its imminent demise. Later, on April 4, 2000, cosmonauts Sergei Zaletin and Alexander Kaleri's Soyuz TM was launched, docking with Mir on April 6. Thus began the world's first privately funded manned space mission. The purpose of the Mir 28 manned mission was ostensibly to reactivate Mir and determine what systems needed to be repaired by the following mission. However, it can be argued that the true purpose of Mir 28 was to establish MirCorp's credibility, an essential step in attracting other investors. After 73 days in orbit, the Mir 28 crew returned to Earth on June 16, 2000. During 2000, MirCorp worked to find customers and new investors, and made preparations to go public with stock in 2001. By March 2000, the company had already spent close to $200 million on the station and required millions of dollars to finance the next manned mission to Mir, which it planned to launch in September 2000. Unfortunately, few interested investors and customers came forward. The only market where the corporation had some success was space tourism. Dennis Tito, a former JPL engineer and owner of Wilshire Associates, a highly successful investment management company, agreed to pay over $20 million for a visit to Mir to become the world's first space tourist. Hollywood director James Cameron also expressed interest in flying to Mir. Finally, Mark Burnett, producer of the highly successful reality-based Survivor TV show, signed a contract with MirCorp. The contestants of his proposed show, Destination: Mir, would undergo training at the cosmonaut training facility in Star City, Russia, with the winner getting a trip to Mir. Ultimately, though, MirCorp could not raise enough funds in time to keep Mir in orbit for 2001. Many space policy analysts believed that the corporation's aspirations and goals were very unrealistic. They argued that all of the markets MirCorp was targeting were better and more cheaply served by companies on Earth or the ISS than by Mir. An excellent Florida Today article evaluating the profit potential for each of MirCorp's targeted markets can be found here. With the station's orbit rapidly decaying during the fall of 2000 due to higher than expected solar activity, Progress M43 was launched on October 17, 2000 to provide a much needed reboost. This $20 million launch, however, was funded by the Russian government since MirCorp did not have the necessary funds on hand. Although MirCorp claimed to have $100 million pledged for 2001 and insisted it would pay the government back for the October Progress launch, RASA ultimately recommended to the Russian government and President Vladimir Putin that the station be deorbited. Based on MirCorp's first year, RASA was skeptical of the corporation's ability to raise the required funds to keep Mir in orbit. It was particularly upset with having to fund the October 2000 Progress flight when MirCorp failed to come through with the required funds. The agency also felt that Energia was incapable of producing Progress and Soyuz spacecraft at the necessary rate to support both Mir and the ISS simultaneously. The February 2000 Progress M1 that boosted Mir's decayed orbit and the following Mir 28 Soyuz were both originally earmarked for the ISS. Also, as a result of delays incurred in building the next (and final) Progress M1 for Mir, the launch date of a Progress to the ISS has been delayed from December 2000 to February 2001. On November 6, 2000, despite MirCorp's protests, the Russian government set aside $25 million for a late January Progress M1 flight to deorbit Mir in mid-March 2001, shortly after its 15th anniversary in space (February 19th). For more on Mir's history from Space.com, click here. For Mir facts from Space.com, click here. For an interactive look at Mir and further information from Space.com, click here. For more on Mir from the Russian Aerospace Guide, including a 3D animation of Mir, click here.

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